Method for managing ground assistance teams of locomotive vehicles and data transmission system therefor

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns a method for managing ground assistance teams of a transport vehicle in a parking zone ( 19 ), wherein a management center ( 3 ) determines the tasks for the respective assistance teams and provides each team with data specifying its task, comprising the following steps: the management center ( 3 ) transmits task data over a radiotelephone network ( 10 ); the teams receive the respective data over terminals ( 15, 16 ) of the network, which presents the data to them; and after executing the tasks, the teams transmit back to the center ( 3 ), from the terminals ( 15, 16 ) task performance reports.

The present invention relates to the management of ground support crewsfor transport vehicles such as aircraft, or also trains, buses andlorries.

If one takes the example of a fleet airliner, several runway teams, eachengaged in different disciplines, tend to the aircraft in the parkingarea designated by the control centre. Each team is assigned a specifictask, such as docking the boarding ramps, handling luggage, catering,electrical power, replenishing aviation fuel, and others.

The details of the tasks vary according to the type of aircraft. Thusthe tasks take into account the next scheduled flight for the aeroplane.

In order to find out the nature of their tasks, the teams consult noticeboards or fixed computer terminals that are located in the airportbuildings and are controlled by the control centre. The information theyaccess in this way identifies the arriving and departing flight, and thecorresponding times, and provides complete details of the tasksassociated with each. Since in practice the flight schedules are oftenat variance with the theoretical times, the teams are assembled in theparking area a long time before the theoretical arrival time. As aresult, the teams are cut off from the control centre and so cannot beinformed of any changes to the schedules, the tasks, or even the plannedparking area.

Moreover, when the aeroplane has taken off again, the teams must submita report on their work, which is used particularly by the airportoperator for billing the airline in question. To avoid omissions anderrors, these reports should be recorded immediately, in real time.However, they are written by hand and require inordinate effort, so thatin practice the teams do not prepare them until the evening, when theyhave returned to their base. This leads inevitably to the omissions anderrors indicated.

The aim of the present invention is to suggest a solution for improvingmanagement of support teams.

To this end, the invention relates primarily to a procedure for managingground support crews for a transport vehicle in a parking area,according to which procedure a control centre assigns tasks for therespective support teams and provides each team with informationspecifying its task, the procedure being characterised in that

-   -   the centre transmits the task information via a radio-telephone        network,    -   the teams receive their respective information on terminals        connected to the network, which display the information to them,        and when the tasks have been completed,    -   the teams transmit their task completion reports back to the        centre from the terminals.

Thus, management of the teams by the centre is adaptive since it takesplace in real time, via wireless link.

The invention further relates to a system for transmitting data for theimplementation of the procedure according to the invention, including:

-   -   a radio-telephone network with mobile terminals for ground        support teams,    -   a team control centre, configured to transmit selectively to the        terminals, via a network gateway, downloaded information with        details on the respective tasks, and    -   the terminals include means for receiving and transmitting to        the centre uploaded information on reports regarding completion        of their tasks.

The invention further relates to a mobile radio-telephone networkterminal for a system according to the invention, wherein the means forreceiving and transmitting reports include profession-specificapplication software for receiving and transmitting completion reportsof a profession-specific task.

Finally, the invention relates to an electronic gateway for a systemaccording to the invention, including software means for processing anapplication level protocol for the management of ground support teams,the exchange of data between a team control centre and a cellularradio-telephone network, to which the teams are linked.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the followingdescription of the data transmission system according to the inventionfor implementing the procedure according to the invention for managingground support teams, with reference to the single FIGURE thatrepresents the data transmission system.

The data transmission system of the present example is operated by theflight management agencies of a public airport. The system includes adatabase 1, with the list of schedule flights, belonging to a controlcentre 3 for ground support teams, each team covering a specificprofessional discipline and being assigned correspondingly with tasks.Control centre 3 includes a stack of profession-specific servers 2,which specify their tasks to the respective teams and coordinate theirrespective activities on the basis of the information from database 1.

Control centre 3 is linked to the support teams via radio, andspecifically via a radio-telephone network 10 for mobile telephones,which in this case constitutes a GSM private cellular network forprofessional use covering the site of the airport in question and thusparticularly the aircraft parking areas or zones, such as the parkingarea indicated by 19.

Control centre 3 is linked to network 10 via an electronic gateway 4with two-way access and here including Wap functionalities, forprocessing application level data exchange protocols, and specificallyin this case processing the present ground support team managementapplication.

Here, gateway 4 is a stationary device linked by cable to a base station11 of network 10. Each team leader has a GSM terminal 15, 16 forcommunicating with any of the base stations 11, 12 of network 10. Inthis example, GSM network is of type GPRS, in order to provide access toradio channels that have a digit rate higher than the standard 9.6 kb/s.Other radio networks complying with different standard standards areconceivable, for example such that are compliant with UMTS, WACS(Wireless Airport Communication System) in the 2.4 GHz band, or evenDECT. As a variant, gateway 4 is a mobile terminal like those designated15, 16, to the extent that it may access one or possibly more radiochannels with digit rates capable of handling the anticipated datatraffic. Additionally, network 10, whose stations 11, 12 may be mountedin containers, may be configured to use frequencies other than those ofthe GSM public network, so that it may be installed rapidly and withoutrisk of interference.

In this example, a global database 5 includes the list of all scheduledflights and the characteristics of these flights, which is to sayparticularly their numbers and the designators of the starting anddestination airports. Global database 5 provides local database 1 with astream of data representing flights scheduled worldwide for the comingdays. It may be noted that control centre 3 could have been located at adistance from the airport in question.

The management of aircraft ground support teams will now be explained ingreater detail.

In general, control centre 3 determines the tasks for the respectiveground support teams and provides each team with detailed information onthe task. Control centre 3 transmits tasking information across network10 and the teams receive the information on their respective terminals15, 16, which display the information to the users thereof. In thisexample, the information is displayed on a screen 159 of terminal 15,controlled by a microprocessor—not shown—that allows eight lines ofcharacters to be displayed in this case. Voice imaging or playback isalso conceivable. Terminals 15, 16 are identical and therefore onlyterminal 15 will be described in detail. Upon completion of its task,each team transmits task completion reports back to control centre 3from its terminal 15, 16. In control centre 3, the profession-specificservers 2 act as the link with terminals 15, 16. The information, orwork or task orders, that are downloaded from control centre 3 to thescreens 159 of terminals 15, 16 specify in this case the number of thearriving flight, its airport of origin its estimated time of arrival,the anticipated delay, the destination and scheduled time of itssubsequent departure. This is then general information which istransmitted to all the teams involved with the aeroplane at issue.

The specific task of one of the teams, as displayed on screen 159, forexample on a subsequent screen page, may for instance be to guide theaircraft to its designated parking area 19 after it has landed, chockthe wheels, connect a generator cable to the aeroplane, check the fireextinguishers, dock the disembarkation ramps and to transport theluggage. The first page, containing general information, may bebroadcast to all terminals 15, 16, whereas the following page isaddressed exclusively to the terminal 15 (16) concerned with the taskindicated on the second page of the task specification.

With regard to the task completion report, when it has completed all theactivities associated with its assigned task, the team in questionenters a message on screen 159 indicating for example that thedisembarkation ramps were docked as prescribed, that the last item ofluggage was removed from the cargo compartment fifteen minutes later andthat the luggage was loaded onto the moving belt specified. After it iswritten, this message is uploaded to control centre 3 via network 10 andgateway 4.

To supplement the management information, database 1 of control centre 3receives, as indicated, the data in the incoming stream that identifiesthe destination airports of flights all over the world, thusconstituting sites including parking areas for aeroplanes, sitesassociated with the data on the respective scheduled movements ofaircraft. As was indicated previously, this data identifies thedeparture and destination airports for the flights, for example“ROISSY”. When it enters database 1, the data in the incoming stream iscompared with the local data in database 1, identifying “ROISSY”airport, in this example, so that, in the event of a match between thelocal data and a related field in the incoming stream that specifies thescheduled destination airport (“ROISSY” or “ORLY”, etc.), the dataassociated with the scheduled movement or flight can be extracted andthen used to generate information about the corresponding tasks on theprofession-specific servers 2.

Here, the information or data is exchanged, uploaded or downloaded, innetwork 10 as indicated, according to a Wap management application levelprotocol. For this purpose, gateway 4 includes software 41, associatedwith a processor—not shown—to manage the Wap protocol that processes theapplication for managing the ground support teams, that is to say forexchanging data between the profession-specific servers 2 and thevarious terminals 15, 16. In the download direction, from control centre3 gateway 4 receives the information to be transmitted too terminals 15,16, and manages the transmission thereof in cooperation with acorresponding Wap software 151, which is stored in the memory of theterminal 15, (16). For example, terminal 15 receives the first page,containing general information on the arriving flight, indicatedearlier, then, by pressing a key on keyboard 158 of terminal 15, theteam leader transmits a receipt acknowledgement to control centre 3.Control centre 3 then transmits the following page which containsspecific details of the task for the team involved.

Regarding uploaded information, the team leaders transmit the completedtask reports and, possibly ahead of time, any question or informationconcerning a task to be carried out. The reports are displayed in theform of one or more messages or screen pages 159.

Here, the Wap protocol ensures that control centre 3 sends a blanktemplate page for the professional report upon request. WAP software 151commands the microprocessor in terminal 15 to display the template onscreen 159 and the team leader fills it out by pressing alphanumerickeys on a keypad 158. In a variation thereof, keypad 158 may includeonly numeric keys in addition to the function keys, and a data entry andcode conversion program is associated with it to replace the omittedalphabetic keys functionally, by interpreting the number of successiveactuations of each key to convert it to one letter of three possibleletters associated with the key. When the report requires several blanktemplates (“screens”), WAP program 21 for control centre 3 and WAPprogram 151 for terminals 15, 16 are configured reciprocally to transmita series of blank report template pages (“screens”) to the terminal 15,(16) associated with a specified task or profession, and to transmit inreturn the completed page, upon the command of the microprocessor interminal 15. WAP programs 21, 41, 151 are thus profession-specificapplication software.

In the terminals 15, (16), the WAP program 151 is installed on aremovable subscriber identity module (SIM) card; alternatively, if largememory capacity is required, the WAP program may be stored in theread-only memory, for example installed in a battery pack on terminal15. Specifically in this example, WAP programs 21, 41, 151 each includea fax application WAP software module that enables control centre 3 totransmit a fax image to screen 159 of terminal 15. In the otherdirection, that is to say uploading, a scanner may be provided, possiblyintegrated in terminal 15, with an optical sensor connector mounted onthe housing of terminal 15, to capture document images (bar codes orsimilar) and transmit them to control centre 3. An image recordingdevice, either still or video, might also be connected to or eveninstalled in terminal 15, so that control centre 3 could be providedwith written and visual information, perhaps even audio, at the sametime. An operator in the control centre may thus be able to check on theprogress of tasks and may also be informed of all incidents oraccidents, and see the pertinent images so as to be able to instruct theteams on site to take specific actions or call emergency assistance.

In this example, it is further provided that network 10 make it possibleto locate terminals 15, 16, which cooperate with stations 11, 12, andprovide such information to control centre 3. For this purpose, themicroprocessors in the terminals, 15 for example, contain geographic mapdata in their memory, including the position of the multiple stationssuch as those designated 11, 12 on network 10, in practice at leastthree. GSM radio circuits in terminal 15 receive the signals in the GSMgrid, transmitted at a level determined by multiple stations 11, 12, andcompare their levels, and thus the corresponding attenuations, todetermine the relative distances between terminal 15 and the variousstations 11, 12. It will be recalled that the amplitude of the radiofield emitted by an emitter decreases linearly with distance. Thus, inthe absence of obstacles, the relationships between the amplitudes ofthe different radio fields received by stations 11, 12 thus directlyprovide the required relative distance values. It is then only necessaryto pinpoint the real position of terminal 15 corresponding to therelative distances determined above on an electronic map bearing thepositions of stations 11, 12. An error due to an obstacle may bedetected, and accordingly eliminated when the number of stations 11, 12offers a redundancy in the input variables (amplitudes) of thepositional calculation. Terminal 15 in this example then transmits itsposition to control centre 3 by radio.

In addition or alternatively, station 11, 12 which manages terminal 15,16, that is to say the closest station in radio terms, assumes temporalcontrol of terminal 15, 16 to ensure that it transmits its time channelsignals with an advance offset relative to a reception reference grid ofthe station 11, 12 concerned, so that this advance makes up for the wavepropagation time as far as station 11, 12 and they arrive exactly in thetemporal channel provided in the grid. The value of the controlledadvance offset represents directly the corresponding distance, the speedof propagation of radio waves in air being known. The station 11, 12involved may thus provide an absolute distance directly and each of theabsolute distances relating to the other stations 12, 11 may then bededuced by multiplying the absolute distance described above by theratio of the two corresponding attenuations.

1. A method that manages tasks for ground support teams for aircraft inaircraft parking areas of an airport, in which an airport control centerdetermines profession specific aircraft-related tasks for respectivesupport teams and provides each team with information specifying itstasks, the method being characterized in that the control centertransmits aircraft-related task information via a radio-telephonenetwork, the teams receive respective information on terminals of thenetwork which display the information to them, and when the tasks havebeen completed, the teams transmit task completion reports back to thecenter from the terminals, the method being further characterized inthat the control center continuously and automatically compares localaircraft-related data stored in a database of the control center withmulti-airport aircraft-related data in an incoming data stream from aglobal database, including sites associated with data that identifyparking areas for aircraft, and sites associated with data on scheduledmovements of aircraft, to determine a data match between localaircraft-related data and multi-airport aircraft-related data in theincoming data stream, and in that profession specific servers in thecontrol center are used, in the event of a data match, to generate andsend automatically general flight information to all teams andprofession specific tasks only to specific teams, and to coordinatetasks between the different teams on the basis of the data from thelocal database.
 2. A system that manages ground support teams foraircraft in aircraft parking areas of an airport, the system comprising:an airport control center that determines profession specificaircraft-related tasks for respective support teams and provides eachteam with information specifying its tasks; a radio-telephone network bywhich the control center transmits the aircraft-related taskinformation; and mobile terminals by which the support teams communicatewith the control center, wherein the terminals have means for displayinginformation transmitted to them and have means for transmitting taskcompletion reports back to the control center, the control center hasmeans for continuously and automatically comparing localaircraft-related data stored in a database of the control center withmulti-airport aircraft-related data in an incoming data stream from aglobal database, including sites associated with data identifyingparking areas for aircraft, and sites associated with data on scheduledmovements of aircraft, to determine a data match between localaircraft-related data and multi-airport aircraft-related data in theincoming data stream, and the control center further comprisesprofession specific servers adapted, in the event of a data match, togenerate and send automatically general flight information to all teamsand profession specific tasks only to specific teams, and to coordinatetasks between the different teams on the basis of the data from thelocal database.
 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the networkis a type Global System for Mobile Communications, has a WirelessApplication Protocol network gateway through which information istransmitted to the terminals.
 4. The system according to claim 2 orclaim 3, wherein the terminals include screens for displaying downloadedinformation and providing information messages to be uploaded.
 5. Thesystem according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the control center andthe terminals include reciprocal management application software fortransmitting blank report forms to the terminals and for transmittingcompleted forms back to the control center.
 6. The system according toclaim 2 or claim 3, wherein the terminals cooperate with stations toallow the positions of the terminals to be determined and transmitted tothe control center.
 7. The system according to claim 2, wherein thereports have profession-specific application software for receiving andtransmitting completion reports of a profession-specific task.
 8. Thesystem according to claim 7, wherein the software is installed on asubscriber identity module card.
 9. The system according to claim 7,wherein the software is installed in a battery pack.
 10. The systemaccording to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein fax software is provided.11. The system according to claim 3, wherein the network gateway hassoftware means for processing an application level protocol managementof ground support teams, the exchange of data between the control centerand the radio-telephone network.